Director Quentin Tarantino wrapped filming for parts of his latest movie, “Django Unchained,” in Jackson Hole last week, with plenty of shots of snow, the Tetons and even elk.
The director decided to shoot five scenes instead of an originally planned three at the private Bar BC Ranch on Spring Gulch Road, Mary Jane Ashmore, the ranch’s marketing manager, said.
After seeing elk on the National Elk Refuge, filmmakers asked to have actors ride among them, but they settled for a less intrusive shot on the reserve.
In all, the production spent more than $500,000, rented 100 rooms at Snow King Resort for about a week and also filmed in Grand Teton National Park.
At Bar BC Ranch, the crew filmed for about five days, Ashmore said.
“They had some scenes in mind that were specific to an ambush and a rambling scene with the Tetons in the background,” she said.
Based on a 1966 Italian-made spaghetti Western, Tarantino’s feature is about a slave-turned bounty hunter, starring Jamie Foxx in the title role. Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell and Sacha Baron Cohen also have roles.
Location scouts stumbled upon the Bar BC Ranch when they were trying to get better access to the Walton Ranch, Ashmore said. But “it just so happened the two locations they spotted [on Bar BC Ranch] were exactly what they were looking for.”
The crew built a cabin near a pond on one part of the 1,400-acre property, Ashmore said.
Hillwood Communities, which owns Bar BC, donated $10,000 to the Jackson Hole Historical Society from the proceeds paid by the film, she said. Some 150 cast and crew members were part of the production that filmed on the ranch last week, Ashmore said.
Tarantino’s production company hired several residents for crew work, Michelle Howard of the Wyoming Film Office said. The company also brought in veteran movie horse wranglers Robin and Kate Wiltshire from Turtle Ranch near Dubois.
The throngs of elk and bison on the National Elk Refuge inspired a new scene for Tarantino’s movie, refuge officials said.
“This site was not planned originally, but when the director saw all the elk along the highway, they wanted to have all their actors walk in and among the elk,” refuge manager Steve Kallin said. “Then they wanted to ride horses in and among the elk.
“We said no,” Kallin said. “They wanted to do some things around the sleigh ride area, which would have caused disturbance.”
However, refuge officials did agree to let the film crew shoot some footage with elk and bison in the background. The crew staged in a “remote location” while roughly six crew members, two actors and two horses went out to the shoot, Kallin said.
“We had them go to our northern feedground,” Kallin said. “There’s a hunter access road there. They sat just on the edge of that road.”
The area is normally closed to the public during the winter, but Kallin decided to grant the crew a permit because there would be little if any impact to wintering wildlife. Kallin couldn’t say how much the refuge charged for the permit. Refuge staff were on hand during the shoot.
“We did have very tightly controlled access and ensured there was no disturbance to the elk or bison,” he said.
Tarantino’s crew shot the footage just after the elk had been fed. While the elk were still standing in the feeding area the actors “rode the horses a short distance between the camera and the herd,” Kallin said. “Their crew was very respectful and followed our instructions explicitly.”
The movie could bring good publicity to the refuge, Kallin said.
“There may be some benefit to the refuge in having … a bunch of wintering animals in a major film,” he said. “We could potentially see a little bump in our sleigh ride visitation.”
The production also shot some scenes at Kelly Warm Springs in Grand Teton National Park. Park officials granted the production a film permit for a couple locations there earlier this month.
The crew stayed at Snow King Resort while they were in town. Dana Ahrensberg, general manager of the resort, said Tarantino’s crew had little downtime but was able to ski at Snow King and the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.
“They work really hard when they were working, and then they had Jackson Hole to relax in when they’re not,” he said. “That was not their original plan, to come to Jackson Hole. It’s lucky we had the best snow in the country.”
The filmmaker also rented out the Teton Theatre Feb. 6 and 7 to play Western and samurai movies from Tarantino’s collection, a Jackson resident who worked as a production assistant and spoke on the condition of anonymity said.
The production crew had nothing but positive things to say about the locations, Howard said.
“Everyone said they were very pleased with the shots they got,” she said. That was despite temperatures that dipped into the negative 20s near the end of the shoot, she said.
The production company spent more than $500,000 in Wyoming, which qualifies it for a cash rebate of up to 15 percent of those expenses, she said. The state’s Film Industry Financial Incentive program requires a production spend $200,000 or more to qualify for the rebate.
“We will be working to process their expenses and receipts in the coming weeks,” Howard said.
This article appeared in the Jackson Hole News & Guide on February 17, 2012
Dunraven Pass is one of several destinations for guided cross-country ski tours with Yellowstone Expeditions in Yellowstone National Park.
